The Planetoid And Other Stories

by Joe Orlando, Paul Levitz (Foreword)

Joe Orlando’s premiere EC science fiction collection! Joe Orlando partnered early with Wallace Wood on a variety of science fiction comics, including several for EC Comics. But he quickly made a name for himself and struck out on his own, carving out a long and distinguished career in American comics. Orlando became a mainstay at EC, especially on science fiction, and The Planetoid And Other Stories collects his first two dozen. All of them, scripted by editor/writer Al Feldstein, serve up classic O. Henry–style shock endings, including a mind-bending time-travel twister in which a man visits the past and (unknowingly) romances his own mother (think about it), a gender-switching look at a future where women are the breadwinners and men are the homemakers, another future where marriages are limited by law to three-year contracts, a good old-fashioned “planets collide” shocker, an animal rights parable, plus lots of rollicking space opera, aliens, and, of course, interplanetary monsters (some of them human). This volume also includes a complete reproduction of EC’s special issue devoted to its own 32-page “illustrated, factual flying saucer report,” with art by Orlando, Wallace Wood, George Evans, and Reed Crandall. Plus, a heartfelt foreword by former DC publisher Paul Levitz, who began his career in comics when Orlando hired him as an assistant, an introduction by Thommy Burns, and featured essays and commentary by EC experts. Black-and-white illustrations throughout

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Comics

208 pages, Hardcover

Published June 27, 2023

About the author

Joseph Orlando was an Italian American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Orlando is one of my least favorite EC Artists but that's like being the shittiest player on the Yankees during one of their many World Series-winning seasons. The stories in here are pretty typical EC fare, like one about the Easter egg with an alien in it or the ones where people go out gunning for skunk pelts and wind up as alien scarves. There's also the guy who goes back in time and diddles a woman with the same name as his mother with predictable results.

As a special bonus, the EC Flying Saucer report issue of Weird Science is included with the EC crew illustrating 1-4 page real UFO reports. Good shit although a Roswell report done in the EC style would have been very cool.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found most of the stories pretty predictable but when it comes down to it I think I go into these anthologies not expecting the most new and exciting stuff, rather the ability to build up to and pay off the reveal in a way that feels satisfying. And these stories largely do! Joe Orlando's artwork is great and can carry some of the weaker stories, while still being stand-out in the stronger ones. I most liked "What Fur?!" and "The People's Choice", maybe the two strongest stories in my opinion that happened to be presented back-to-back. There's certainly a lot of stuff to dig through here, and is a worthy archival collection even if the quality of each story isn't record-breaking.